10,000 unique collectible characters with proof of ownership stored on the Ethereum blockchain. This is the project that inspired the modern CryptoArt movement.
Cryptopunks are the first "non-fungible token" in history on Ethereum and the inspiration for the ERC-721 standard that powers most digital artwork and collectibles.
CryptoPunks are precisely 10,000 uniquely generated characters. No two are exactly alike, and each can be officially owned by a single person on the Ethereum blockchain. Initially, they could be claimed for free by anyone with an Ethereum wallet, but all 10,000 were quickly claimed. Now they have to be purchased by someone through the marketplace that is also embedded in the blockchain. Through this marketplace you can buy, bid and offer punks for sale. Punks with a blue background are not for sale and do not have any pending bids. Punks with a red background are available for sale from their owner. Finally, punks with a purple background have an active bid on them.
There is a code on the blockchain that anyone can use to buy and sell Punk with anyone else in the world. An interesting aspect of this system is that there is no longer any control over the code that runs CryptoPunks. Once it is released on the blockchain, it has been permanently embedded there, where it can no longer be modified by anyone.
How do I get Punks?
Download and install a Chrome browser plug-in called MetaMask. This will allow websites (that you authorize) to access your Ethereum account.
If you have created a new account, purchase some Ethereum. The MetaMask plugin has a button that will allow you to purchase Ethereum from Coinbase.
Once the plug-in is installed, this site will recognize it and add buttons that will allow you to bid, buy and sell punk directly in the interface.
For example, you can buy Punk # 2648 for 21.75 ETH.
CryptoKitties is a game based on digital collectible cats in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of type ERC721 on the Ethereum blockchain. The player has to buy, collect, breed and sell these virtual kittens, while also being able to make some money from them.
The fact that NFTs are used means that the user is the sole owner and can dispose of them as he likes. Moreover, in this way it is publicly certified that each CryptoKitty is unique, cannot be replicated and cannot be transferred without the user's explicit consent.
The value of each NFT is determined by the market, so the game developers have no power over it or over the CryptoKitty transactions.
Each virtual cat has its own distinct 256-bit genome, with its own DNA and 12 attributes, called cattributes, that can be passed on to offspring. These include livery, mouth shape, eye shape, colors, and environment, while others are not passed down to offspring.
The game is based on a smart contract on Ethereum and is therefore managed in a decentralized way.
To play the game, as a first step the user has to register on cryptokitties.co and connect a MetaMasks wallet on which he will hold his NFTs. The next step is to buy a CryptoKitty by paying in ETH thanks to the MetaMask wallet.
In fact, there is a real marketplace of these NFTs on the site, which allows you to both buy them to start playing and resell them.
Once the CryptoKitty is purchased, its NFT token is transferred to the user's wallet, which in this way becomes its sole owner. At this point, you can start breeding it.
In order to make money, it is obvious that you need to make the CryptoKitty more attractive to the market. Not surprisingly, not all attributes are equal and some are rarer than others. The trick is to get rare attributes for your kitten, so as to increase its desirability for the market. The fact is that kittens with the rarest attributes can be worth hundreds of ETHS, so in theory it is also possible to earn a high income.
The first attribute to consider is the Gen, or generation: the lower it is, the higher the value of the kitten. Every 15 minutes new kittens are generated with Gen 0, and every time they mate they generate other kittens with a higher Gen than the parent that has the highest Gen.
Mating is precisely the action necessary to generate new kittens, with new combinations of attributes inherited in part from their parents. Breeding kittens means to breed them in order to generate new ones.
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to generate kittens with rare attributes through mating, but that is what the game is all about: finding a way to generate kittens with attributes rarer than their parents so that their value is higher than that of their parents.
Therefore, if in theory playing is very easy, because you just have to buy CryptoKitty and have them mate, earning money is very difficult, because the kittens generated by mating are usually worth less than their parents. The trick, if one succeeds, is to make the mating of two parents produce a CryptoKitty with rarer attributes, so that its value is higher.
But the problem is that the way attributes pass from parents to offspring is secret, although it works similarly to real-world genetics, i in other words, with a higher probability that attributes possessed by the parents will be inherited. However, this is not always the case, and it is therefore always possible that a new CryptoKitty will also inherit rare attributes.
In short, to generate valuable CryptoKitties is difficult, but the more you manage to generate them the more likely it is that this eventuality will occur. This is probably why the game has been so successful.